Winged guests staying away from Mysore

MYSORE: Come winter and the winged guests from far off places start visiting the city . They come here to spend adverse climatic conditions in their native lands where the rivers and tanks get converted into glaciers, depriving the birds of their food. Lakes spread around the city act as a perfect setting to these winged guests. These lakes surrounded by forest cover also provide a safe place for these migratory birds to breed.

Usually birds start arriving here in the last week of September and stay here till March end.

But in recent years numbers of migratory birds visiting the city lakes is on the decline and according to bird watchers and naturalists the decline is severe and drastic. “There is almost 50 % cut in the number of migratory birds visiting the city lakes”, claims D H Tanuja who is an expert on birds and discloses that the reasons for this decline are varied.

For instance, according to her, the bar headed goose which used to travel from Tibet and Mangolia has almost stopped visiting the city for the last couple of years. “We have not seen even single Bar headed goose in the city in the recent years” she pointed out revealing how birds are stopping to visit the city.

First, the climate change might have forced the birds to shelve their migratory plans, second their population in their native lands might have dwindled or turned extinct and third, birds visiting city might be feeling the climate in and around Mysore not suited for their stay, she lists out. Tanuja adds that even the drying up of lakes coupled with urbanization may be other strong reasons for the decline in the number of migratory birds.